Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Secret Book of Flora Lea: A Novel

i really wanted to like this book and it was something i chose in order to branch out from my normal reading habits of horror and mystery. though this still had an element of mystery, it didn't really hit the mark for me. i found that the constant back-and-forth time jumps made the story feel disjointed and caused me to have a hard time focusing. i understand the point of the time jumps but didn't feel they needed to be as frequent as they were. i also found a lot of parts to be just fluff without any real substance or necessity. wren as a character felt completely unnecessary, i didn't understand barnaby's weird and constant ultimatums and just straight up being an ass about everything, and i even found some parts with harry to be just boring fluff. you probably could have removed all three of these characters and would have ended up with the same story (okay, maybe keep harry, but still). i overall just felt that the author was trying to write a beautiful story with a deep meaning and a thoughtful message but it honestly just felt so surface-level to me. it felt more like a skeleton of a story than a fully flesh-out one. i don't know. it just didn't do it for me, which is unfortunate. (also, take a shot for every time tolkien or the hobbit is referenced lmao)

Content Warnings

jmyodafriend's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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lexcellent's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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nataliebootlah's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Twenty years after the disappearance of her younger sister, Flora, the book of Whisperwood comes across Hazel’s desk at work. Considering the only person who knows about Whisperwood is her long-gone sister, Hazel immediately tries to track down its author, whom she hopes—somehow—is Flora.

Toggling between WWII and the 1960’s, the reader is front row to fourteen year-old Hazel and five-year old Flora as they evacuate war-torn London and adult Hazel as she reels at the possibility of Flora still being alive.

I picked up this book blind and wanted to love it. It’s historical fiction, whimsy, and centers around the magic of storytelling. Despite wanting to know how everything works out, I just wasn’t invested in the characters as much as I expected to be. Perhaps it was because the lead-up was way too slow, or how it felt just a tad too long. Either way, it was a great display of the love between two close-knit sisters, how storytelling can change the trajectory of your life, and reconciling with loss.

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marpaige's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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